Florida State will look to put its struggles aside on Monday night when it visits Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
The Seminoles (14-12, 7-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) saw their frustrating season continue with an 88-70 setback to No. 9 Duke on Saturday. The loss was the seventh in eight games for Florida State.
The Seminoles played without leading scorer Caleb Mills (ankle injury), Anthony Polite (wrist) and RayQuan Evans (knee).
Still, Florida State showed resilience as it hung with the Blue Devils until late in the first half.
With only nine players available, the Seminoles couldn’t pull closer than eight points in the second half.
Freshman Matthew Cleveland continued to pick up the slack for the wounded Seminoles by scoring a team-high 16 points. Cleveland is the Seminoles’ second-leading scorer (10.8 points per game) and third-leading rebounder (4.6).
“We just got beat by a better team today, a team that played better,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. “But it wasn’t for lack of effort. I thought the effort was excellent.”
The Eagles (9-16, 4-11) lost their fifth consecutive game Saturday, a 76-56 decision to Syracuse.
Boston College also is dealing with a depleted roster as T.J. Bickerstaff missed his second consecutive game with a calf injury. Demarr Langford Jr. also left the game in the second half with an apparent toe injury and did not return.
On the bright side, Quinten Post returned after a two-game absence due to COVID-19 protocol and James Karnik led the Eagles with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Boston College, however, made just 5 of 28 shots from 3-point range and turned the ball over 15 times.
“It’s a combination of a very good (Syracuse) zone and not being sound enough,” Eagles coach Earl Grant said. “We had some mental fatigue in our guys, so mentally, we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be.”
–Field Level Media
